Highsmith, Patricia.
THE BLACK HOUSE: THE LETTERED AND SIGNED EDITION.
New York City, NY:
Penzler Books,
1988.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
258 pages.
As New.
Signed.

Retrospective collection of short stories. Now considered a late-modern classic. Deluxe Slipcased Edition of 26 Lettered And Signed copies. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, including the Numbered And Signed Edition, which was published simultaneously with it and in the same format. The Deluxe Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Otto Penzler Books: Regular-sized volume format. Black hard boards with gilt titles embossed on the spine, as issued. Text by Patricia Highsmith. Matching black slipcase. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in its Deluxe Edition, Patricia Highsmith's "The Black House". "One of Highsmith's most nuanced and psychologically suspenseful works. The stories mine classic Highsmith terrain as they sketch the lives of suburban dwellers that appear quite normal at first but unravel to reveal their proximity to the macabre" (Publisher's blurb). "The verbal equivalent of a drug: Easy to consume, darkly euphoric, totally addictive" (Time Out). There are many crime-and-mystery thriller writers who can give even the most jaded reader a really good scare. Highsmith cuts more deeply, leaving an open wound, because she makes us see the void called the human soul. This is what makes her a truly ground-breaking Modernist, not just another great genre writer. Her greatest creation, Tom Ripley, is unique in American literature: The unsurpassed embodiment of amorous amorality of our time. Patricia Highsmith is best-known as the author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley", which was the basis of a very fine film by Anthony Minghella, with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law. She wrote five "Ripley" novels in all and the third one, "Ripley's Game", became the basis of yet another fine film, by the great Italian director Liliana Cavani, with John Malkovich as the older (and more assured) Tom Ripley. Alfred Hitchcock was among the first to see her unique genius and adapted her debut novel, "Strangers On a Train", into one of his greatest films. An absolute "must-have" title for Patricia Highsmith collectors. This copy is one of the Deluxe Slipcased Edition of 26 Lettered And Signed copies, indicated as such on the Front Limitation Page, and it is very prominently and beautifully lettered and signed in black ink-pen by the author: "[Letter] N Patricia Highsmith". This title is a late-modern classic. As far as we know, this is one of only two such copies of the Deluxe Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Highsmith signed very few copies of her books, almost all of them to people she knew and was close to. Her Limited Editions are most collectors' best chance of getting a reasonably-priced signed book by her. A rare signed copy thus. Regarded by Gore Vidal as "one of our great modernist writers". One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PATRICIA HIGHSMITH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0892962275. $200.00

This item is available for purchase. This web page was most recently updated on September 26, 2017.